‘In him was life’ (John 1:4)
Dear brothers and sisters,
It is a great privilege to be set aside to teach the Bible. I am hugely grateful to you for your generosity to enable me to do this.*
Last Sunday we looked at Jesus’ miracle at Cana. The thing that struck me in particular was his sheer goodness and goodness the life that he has come to bring.
At the heart of the lie of Satan in the garden was that God is a killjoy who suppresses rather than supplies. Most assume that if God came to our world he would turn wine into water, not water into wine! As Christians we too easily buy into that lie. We know that believing in Christ and living for him is right but we are less convinced that it is good. Increasingly our young people especially are being told that living as a Christian is oppressive, restrictive and burdensome.
But that is a terrible lie. But that is John’s purpose in writing – by coming to believe that Jesus is the Christ we ‘may have life in his name’ (John 20:30). The nature of that life is something we are shown in this gospel. As we saw on Sunday, the Bridegroom has come to bring the life of the feast of God’s new creation. He has come to remove the shroud of death that covers all and instead give us his life which is rich, abundant, joyful, satisfying celebration. As he will say later in John: ‘I have come that they may have life and have it to the full’ (John 10:10).
Let’s pray that as individuals, and as a church, we come to see the richness and goodness of the life that we have now and will experience fully one day that has come to us through the grace and truth of Jesus.
I so look forward to seeing you on Sunday.
Your brother in Christ,
Micky
*The article by Phil Colgan, What is a Stipend, in this edition of the Australian Church Record is excellent in helping us to think rightly about paid Christian ministry and is well worth reading.